Averygoodun's Personal File

I hate making calls. Really, I'm almost phobic about it. Not quite, but it's amazing how long I have to psych myself up to make any call besides one to Geoff. Even calling family makes me nervous.

Ah well. I do need to find out whether Page is a Canadian citizen due to the date of his birth or not. So I guess I will call. At some point. Soon. Honest.

In other news, it was almost 80 degrees here yesterday. I sunbathed (for vitamin D purposes), and even as exposed as I was (sports bra and swim-skirt), I was getting uncomfortably warm by the time my 15 minutes were up.

However, later in the day, I persuaded Page to come outside with me, and I cleaned and weeded the garden while he regaled me with details about the new world he's creating. I had the thought that perhaps JRR Tolkien's mum (or, more likely, his nurse), went through something similar. It wasn't too bad, as my body was busy and my mind idle, but, wow. He can still talk.

While he was talking, I managed to weed most of the strawberries out of the ornamental garden out back. I still have a dozen or so to pull up, but I think I may have a chance of keeping up with them come spring. I also managed to pull up most of the alders that had taken root last year. My poor neglected garden really was neglected last year. I think I got out only a few times in the spring, and then... nothing. For the entire summer. And fall. (I lay the blame on the basement. It sucked everything out of me. Everything.)

But spring is definitely coming. Crocuses are blooming, daffodils and hyacinths are emerging, my honeysuckle is budding, and the creeping phlox is greening. And the grass, too. It even smells oddly fertile around here. It's a month early, but spring is definitely coming. Most people are pretty happy about this, and I figure I might as well join them. As long as we don't get a front-range spring with two foot snow drops that break all the trees and kill all the flowers, I'm okay with winter being done. I certainly don't want a deep freeze to come along at this point!

I have also been productive in the basement. Two wall panels are done(ish), and cabinets have been installed on them. I've also put up one unit of pegboard and organized the more necessary tools on it. It's a temporary storage solution, as many things will go on the as yet unfinished walls, but it's getting there. And it's all accessible!!! Oh, man, is it nice to be able to use the basement to construct things again. And, I am constructing things. I've almost finished the column to cover the support beam, which is the first step to creating the storage cabinet for the laundry area (which will double as an art storage place; it'll be double sided), which should improve life for us me significantly.

Painting... I haven't been so productive. I did put in a week of labor getting "Herald" framed up nicely (enough) so as to put it in the Art Association's Spring art show at the mall. That went up last Saturday. I still have yet to go down to the mall to photograph the show. Ah well.

I've also started sketching with watercolors (well, watered-down acrylics; use what you have) in preparation for a painting I want to do. I overworked the first sketch, but it's not too bad. I'll share a photo of it eventually. I think that also happened on Saturday... Heh.

Otherwise, life has been spent drinking tea and running around in a daze. I sure would like this basement done so that I can take a guilt-free weekend off. But it's getting there. It is. Finally. Almost a year later... *grunts*

Anyway, I ought to go. Lunch to eat, instruments to deliver, husbands to ferry... Yep. Exciting stuff. ;-)

On the friendslist, that is. Nowhere near caught up on things that need doing in the here and now... Ach well. If I didn't comment on your entries, I apologize, but I have read back a couple of weeks now. You all got very active here while I was gone and didn't let me know! ;-)

Life here is... life. I think I'm doing the post-stress burn-out thing. I never realize how stressed I am at the time of the stress (school), and I'm great for about three days after the stress ends, but then... boom. Or should I say "crash"? Anyway, I'm okay, but so tired because the subliminal pain is disrupting my sleep. I'm still not sure what to (realistically) do about it at this point. I did take a benadryl last night (I had been itchy all day), which resulted in me waking almost rested, which was nice.

God, I'm bored just typing this out. You've probably already skipped on to the next post. I don't blame you.

Spring here is in full swing, and it's more or less lovely. A lot of rain and cloud-cover, though. My daffodils were glorious. Absolutely worth every penny and bead of sweat. And now my bleeding heart is putting on quite a show, which is also lovely. Next up are the irises, and it's looking like they're going to be kicking it up to fantabulous this year. It makes this garden mum proud, it does.

And it looks like every plant I planted survived. Well, non-bulb plants. I have no idea how many of the 300+ bulbs I planted last fall survived, though a good deal of them obviously did based on the spring show. But even my late-hard-frost-bitten clematis is alive and growing! I hope to get its trellis made before it needs it too desperately.

Page is also doing pretty well. Since he started the controller asthma meds, he's had a LOT more energy. It's been wonderful to see him running and playing and being happy! He's still got issues, but, by gum, there's progress. (Which is something I need to remember, especially as I focus on the stuff that still needs improvement.)

Geoff is... tired. He's been pushing himself lately, and probably will be pushing himself even more in the month to come as the biannual Conference of Doom approaches. Fortunately, he's not going to be on-site. In fact, it's almost guaranteed he won't be on-site, as the site is in China this year, and he doesn't have an entry visa. YAY! (Three weeks is too little time to get even an expedited visa, yes?) However, he's taking a full month off later this summer, so he should be feeling better by the time school starts up again.

Let's see... what else? Geoff and I spent Mother's Day staking the arbor into it's final resting place. I have a bit of repair work to do on the side of the arbor thanks to wind-damage (i.e. it being felled twice by a sharp breeze) but that will happen. Soonish. Maybe. I also made a garden bed out of pallet crate slats. I don't particularly recommend it unless you really have NO money to throw around. Those boards are... cheap. My goal is to have my back garden in good enough shape to have friends over to celebrate my birthday. That's only 3 weeks away, so it might not happen, but we'll see.

I suppose next week I really need to buckle down and start studying for a CLEP. Haven't decided which it's going to be, though - business law or microeconomics? And at some point I need to work on my resume. If I'm going to be applying to temp agencies in the fall, I suspect I need to start compiling and editing now. Because, yeah. :-P

And that's about it except for a to do list that's even more boring than what I've already written. Fun stuff. :-)

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I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and for the Americans, may it be a lovely Memorial Day.

It is now Allergy Spring. I itches, precious.

It's still beautiful out, though. The flowering trees have pretty much ended, but the rhodos and azaleas are coming into their own, and, oh my, I think I'm going to have a glorious crop of irises this year! I will be taking pictures of my garden. Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, my new camera should be arriving. I went ahead and got the Canon Powershot SX500. The SX50 was out of my price range, but the SX500 should do pretty nicely, even if it doesn't have a viewfinder. The macro feature is far, far better than my SX100, its range is 24mm - 700mm (whereas my current camera only goes down to 28mm) and it gets pretty solid reviews for its class. Not the best, but solid enough for an amateur like me. Plus, I can list it as a school expense on this year's taxes. :-)

Today is... going to be a lot more work than I want. It seems Geoff was right (or closer to right than I was) about the difficulty level of moving the planter boxes. We moved the long, narrow one and all its dirt yesterday, and, well, I was frustrated to start with (I actually had a mini-temper tantrum, bashing my thumb as I did so), and the frustration did not improve upon learning that, despite our best efforts to protect it, the wood of the boxes is starting to rot. We actually had to replace one of the uprights because it disintegrated as we took the planks off.

Ah well.

The other planter boxes should be easier, as they aren't as embedded as the long one was, but it's still going to be an awful lot of toiling. I hope to get one more moved today (with or without dirt, I'm not picky) before we start the cooking extravaganza. Because cooking also has to, has to happen.

Of course, all I want to do is go back to sleep, but that's likely the benadryl talking. Well, the benadryl, stress, and achiness. This has been a long week. And I am very glad to have the morning alone. God, am I glad.

Other good things are:

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Right. Off I go to... collect rocks for the rock "wall"? Bed? Unscrew the planter box? *shrug* Don' know. But off I go.

1. It's beautiful outside. Seriously, seriously beautiful. It's about 12 (C), the sun is shining and the breeze is nonexistent. Beautiful. I plan on raking the front yard today as I soak up the sun.


2. I lost a filling last night as I was brushing my teeth. On the plus side, it doesn't hurt at all unless I happen to gnash the points of the remaining tooth with its corresponding upper tooth. On the downside, those points are sharp! Also, money I didn't want to spend getting it replaced.


3. I think I did well on the test this morning. I studied for most of yesterday, and even though I couldn't remember some of the topics when I started the practice problems, I did figure them out (for the most part) through logic, rather than cheating and looking in the book. Anyway, I think I did respectably on this one. (Being healthy helps. So much.)


4. Geoff, Page and I are watching "Avatar: The Last Airbender" (TV series) on Amazon, and, damn, but I love it. Last night I actually gasped in shock at a scene, though that might have been as much because one of my favorite characters was struck down as for the effectiveness of the scene. But, that's the thing - this show has characters! They have depth! They grow and change! Well, for the most part. Still not sure about Azula (the little sociopath), but I'm not ruling out the possibility of finding some depth to her. Yet. I'm looking forward to learning more about Mai and Ty Lee, though.

(And sorry, Ash, but right now I'm really not loving Toph. But it's early days yet. I didn't like Sokka much at the beginning, either.)

Anyhoo, it's something we all look forward to at the end of the day. And it's also a motivator for getting Page to do things in a timely manner! Whee!


5. Did I mention the weather? *happy sigh*


6. Yesterday was Page's first day after school on Thursdays, and daaaaaaang, what a difference that made to my day. Having the entire day to study (and play) was so much better! I respect his desires where after school attendance is concerned, (what non-essential days he wants to attend, for example), but I might have to put my foot down and insist he stay in Thursdays as well as Wednesdays for the rest of the semester. If he wants to attend a different day, we'll add it back in rather than changing out of Thursday!


7. I can take a nap if I want or need to. Also the guys are seeming like they're feeling okay, so I can guiltlessly toss them out of the house to do stuff this weekend! (Vacuum out the car, rake the back yard, go to the library, etc.) That will be nice.


But now I should go rake the yard. And maybe talk to the neighbors/contractors about NOT starting construction before 8 AM on weekends.

Happy weekend! And happy birthday, shiv!

And wibbly. But first, the tired:

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Now to wibbling:

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First, go look at the Astronomy Picture of the Day (it's actually a timelapse video): http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/


Nothing undercuts a guided relaxation gig like remembering near the end that you have an appointment in two minutes and you don't have the car. On the plus side, as I was calling Geoff for the car, I looked at the calendar and found the appointment (my placement test) is tomorrow, not today. Phew. (Downside, of course, is that all the relaxation was erased in that moment of realization. Plus side: I wasn't panicked.)


Geoff's sick. He's at work, but he's developing a chest thing which I really hope won't be bronchitis. He's prone to it. He hasn't had it in... gosh, ten years, but before that, it was a horrible yearly occurrence. (Maybe I'm good for something after all! ;-) No coughing yet, so hopefully it'll peter out, but... :-(


The robins have come back. Can hear them chirping away, even though it is bitter out. Beautiful, with the sun shining and bright, blue skies, but the wind feels arctic. And, of course, it is constantly breezy.


Made some Chinese chicken stock yesterday, and boy did it smell good. I still need to strain it, but seeing as there isn't all the detritus of western stock, it should be a small task.


I need to dust. Fortunately, there aren't any vampires around to dust, thereby creating more dust. Small consolation, though. (Season 4 Buffy is the best yet. God, it's good to laugh!)


Last day of algebra and math study, and then I can switch to writing and painting. I'm looking forward to doing both.


ETA: Oh, and this is going to sound very odd, but god, I love the smell of kimchi in the morning. I am so happy to have some in the house again!

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's all for now.

I was super crabby today, and Babe was super chipper. And talkative. And bouncy. And... yeah. Fortunately, I needed to go out, so I put a sandwich, a couple of fruit bars and a bottle of water in my purse and we stopped in the park for an hour or so.

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We walked until he said he needed to use the bathroom, at which point we turned around (the boy has a bladder of steel. He can and will hold it for literally hours). We stopped at the store, bought some essentials and picked Geoff up for lunch.

Then, when it was time for Geoff to go back to work, Babe and I escorted him on bike. The three of us rode the mile (of flat land) to his work. When we got there, Babe and I consumed a fair amount of their nice, cold, filtered water while we cooled down, and Geoff disappeared into the back.

After we were sufficiently rested, Babe and I left, riding a block over to a pond with a playground. We had fun on the teeter-totters until my legs got sore, and then played cops and robbers with the jungle gym until I said we needed to go. I didn't want him to use all his energy on the playground, not when we still had a mile to ride.

But, well, he wanted to go back the way we came, and when we got to the street across from Geoff's work, it became obvious that someone needed to use the bathroom. So... into the office we went again, but this time I decided it was just best to chill there. Literally. It was hot outside, and Geoff's office is always nice and cold in the warm weather. Need to keep the computers cool, after all.

So we went in, watched a show Geoff was QCing and rested. Before we knew it, it was seven o'clock. Well past time for all of us to go.

So then we rode back.

By the time we got back, I was much, much happier. Babe was still super chipper and bouncy and... yeah, but having been on that ride, seen those sights and breathed the sweet spring air, I could deal with it. Mostly.